Summary: WE need to keep our focus in the right places as we await the return of the Lord!

• As we live our lives, it is easy to lose focus on what is important. It is so easy to get caught up in the problems of life that we forget where our focus is supposed to be.

• It becomes a challenge for us at times not to stay focused on problems or on what is wrong with things in life.

• Jesus is going to return at any time and it is our job to be ready for Him to get us.

• We need to live our lives with a sense of urgency. Our walk with Jesus should be more than coming to church on Sundays. We are called to live our lives for the glory of God. We must live with an awareness of Jesus in our lives, with an awareness that Jesus is going to come back and take us with Him.

• As we close the letter to the church at Thessalonica, Paul gives us some quick-hit thoughts some reminders of things we need to focus on as we strive to please Jesus with our lives.

• When you are facing tough times, what are you focusing on? When you are in the midst of prosperity, what are you focusing on? When you are confronted with a choice between two things that claim to be truth, what are you focusing on?

• Today I want to share six areas for us to focus on as we live our lives.

• Losing focus in these areas can make life more difficult, like a baseball player trying to hit a ball he is not focused on.

• The church was facing a lot of persecution. Just living life was very hard. It would have been easy to be depressed about life in general. It would have been easy to think that God had abandoned them because of what they were facing.

• The consequence of having received God’s salvation should be an attitude of joy.

• Joy is not dictated by circumstances. Joy does not come from outward conditions. Joy is something that comes from inside of us because of our spiritual riches in Christ. Joy comes from the assurance of what we have in Christ!

• When things get tough, we need to focus on the joy we have in Christ!

• It is too easy to focus on the negative, isn’t it? Is that really the way a joyful Christian should live their life?

• SLIDE #4

• 1 Peter 4:13 ( ESV ) But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.